Popeye's Revenge (2025)


REVIEWER RATING: 
7/10

DIRECTOR:

CAST:


This is amusing on so many levels beyond the obvious. For one, Popeye is not a Disney asset unlike the recently released Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare and Screamboat. However, there are NO cartoon characters off limits for mockery and debauchery in the independent film world. Right on!  

The craziest discovery after receiving Popeye’s Revenge is there are TWO additional Popeye-themed horror parodies also being released around the same time! I may have to check out Shiver Me Timbers and (cleverly titled) Popeye: The Slayer man soon! But no going off on a tangent now…this review is about his revenge.  

In similar formulaic fashion, our “hero” and beloved sailor undergoes a traumatic childhood, inundated with persistent bullying and abuse. Unable to escape the intense damage unscathed, Popeye grows into the monster that society has inflicted upon him. With a clear disfigurement and fury burning inside, the urban legend built is comparable to Jason Voorhees: a tormented boy who drowned yet returns to avenge his enemies through superhuman strength and a supreme grudge to boot.  

Through the years, the house on the lake has been deemed haunted and Johnny (Popeye’s birth name) lives within the thick cloud of fog that rolls aside the water. After three young adults set off to capture the spooky spectacle of this ghostly property, a chain of worried parents second guess their own kids’ decisions to tear down and rebuild an actual haunted house attraction on the plagued ground.  

Lead by an inquisitive and perky Tara, this new group of sexually fueled twenty-somethings eagerly warmed up to the idea of some casual labor, alcohol, and hot tub action to sow their wild oats. No one suspects that the tale of Popeye could rear its ugly head through substantially grotesque mutilations with…*laughs*…an anchor?  

If you’re wondering about additional beloved characters from the cartoon days making an appearance, you will get glimpses and hints as to several…including a cameo of canned spinach! If you’ve been enjoying these satires developed from our childhood innocence, give this low budget flick a chance. Popeye’s Revenge isn’t original or compelling. And the story isn’t strong – perhaps that’s why Popeye needs his spinach strength? To get through its simplicity?

OVERALL: 
I’ve gained a fondness for many of these precious animations-turned-live action films, mainly because our warm and fuzzy icons are now vicious, blood-thirsty monsters. It’s as if Hans Christian Anderson collaborated with the Brothers Grimm to prevail with their intentionally horrific tales of terror, by bringing them to the big screen. It’s indulgent. A new guilty pleasure. And even with all its ridiculousness in tow, it still beats watching an episode of Real Housewives, unless those women are toting machetes alongside a casserole dish.


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